Burke
May 10, 2023•1,220 words
Life
- Early life
- Edmund Burke is born in Dublin in 1729 when it was part of the British Empire
- Father was a prosperous attorney
- His father was protestant, mother was catholic
- Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, bastion of the Anglican Church
- He went to the Middle Temple at London to qualify for the bar
- He married in 1756 and had a son 1758, disqualifying him from celibate expectations
- Career
- Felt a political career and became a writer
- He was a writer and then a public figure
- It was impossible to pursue a career in philosophy without independent income or clerical vocation
- He made money in narrative works and political affairs
- 1758 until 1765, he was the conductor of the new Annual Register
- 1765: Becomes a private secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham and elected into the House of Commons
- He in that service remained there for 29 years
- Had many parliamentary speeches and published versions of them
- His career embraced concerns about British rule overseas and his work was linked to crituque of the French Rev
- More notable as a pundit, holding office only twice for a brief period
- In may 1791, there was a break in his party colleagues over the significance of the rev, he became an independent commentator on domestic politics and international affairs
- He turns his attention to Ireland in his last years, were he failed to found a political dynasty and left no lasting school
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Philosophy
- Was he a political philosopher?
- He wrote no theoretical work, he was more a politician
- He wrote about the French and American Revolutions
- He published his speeches
- A successful pamphleteer
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French Revolution
- His work is characterized by his views on the French Revolution
- He took a critical position and was latter associated with conservatism
- The event became a way for people to orient themselves politically
- He associated the revolution with retrogression, not progress, contrary to modern views
- French revolution is viewed with the perspective of modern liberal progress, but Burke does not live to see the longer future
- Views of the time
- Supported by the English because it was against absolute monarchy
- They had their own revolution 100 years earlier
- People did not agree with Burke until later, the events of the Second Revolution and Reign of Terror
- His view
- He saw the revolution lacked the necessities for a parliamentary government:
- Intermediate ranks in society, which they abolished
- System of property: also undermined
- Foundation for authority: also not present
- The revolution did not have the components prerequisite for what it wanted to establish
- It wanted to create a new man and new society
- He did not believe you could write rights into existence
- Perceived this doctrine was based on reason, enlightenment ideas: it was too abstract to be a design for society
- The revolution was self-destroying, it was a delusive vision
- Mankind is civil and social, a product of his heritage and society that a Revolution could not change
- Man is a product of nature and society
- There is a natural order is society based on the past
- It was a social experiment that he saw would fail
- The ambitions of the French
- Reconstruct a new calendar: base 10 system
- Ten months, 30 days in a month, 10 days in a week
- Base 10 system of time
- 1790: he makes his stance, defending:
- Liberty, which has conditions for its security
- Right of resistance against illegitimate government under extreme conditions
- He felt that important values were lost in Europe
- Duty and honor to authority
- Loyalty to rank and sex
- Dignified obedience
- King will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle
- Revolutions should be like the Glorious Rev, it should restore the rule of the law and the balance of power
- Gradual evolution over revolution
- Not a conservative in the sense of preservation and no change, but gradual change
- Revolutions usually have unintended outcomes contrary to its aims
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- Authority
- He defends a notion of authority
- Authority is legitimate if supported by popular consent
- It is entrenched by tradition
- Conditional tradition
- It is not tradition at all costs
- tradition protects rights but the later are more important, tradition is conditional
- Not the typical conservative defense of tradition regardless
- All ideologies have elements to conserve
- It saves the valued principles, even the most radical
- Conservatism is a variable, not a stable concept
- Burke predates his own ideology, conservatism does not exist but is a belated projection onto the period
- Societies
- Occur naturally
- Classes are natural, natural order is divine, God picks who will lead (believed in aristocracy)
- Ordinary people only have a desire for self-interests
- Critical of the notion of equality, it is fictional because people are not equal
- Critical of natural rights and the general will
- Valued patriotism: interests of the nation are prioritized over the interests of the individual
- Believed in an European society, a body with common traditions, cultures, and values
- Contract
- Believed society was a contract but the state is more than a partnership or agreement
- State should be revered because it is a partnership of science, art, and every virtue and in all perfection
- A partnership between those that are dead and those yet to be born too
- Liberty
- Constitutional monarchy, rule of law, and legal precedent was better for liberty than new established abstract rights
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The politician
- The role of the politician
- Delegated the responsibility to make choices for the best interest of those represented
- Not responsible for following what the people want per say
- They are supposed to be logical enough to make the best decisions
Conscious vote
- Gave a speech in 1774 to his constituents against slavery, presents the concept of the concious vote
- Representatives should remain free and independent
- There is the delegate vs trustee model of representation, he believed in the later
Positions
- Changed over his career
- He was a believed in a monarchy governed by law
- Valued inherited wisdom of tradition and man’s concept be moderate, balanced and compromising instead of trying to overthrow the order
- Though a critic of the French revolution, he supported the movement for Irish independence and the American Revolution
- Peace and reconciliation with American colonies, repeal the Tea Tax
- Opposed East India CO
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Impact
Conservativism
- Considered the father of conservativism
- Humans have a tendency to act irrationally, and must be kept in check by tradition, morality, law
- Humans have a proclivity towards evil and fascinated by disaster, the instinct of self preservation
- Conservative policies:
- Protectionism in trade
- Less state intervention in the economy
- Patriotism, nationalism
- Culture of traditional values
- Law and order
- State as a tool against degeneracy